War From the Other Side

Today I experienced something like I never have before. I have always been so afraid to bring up WWII to anyone from Germany, especially my host mom. I don't know how we happened upon the topic, but somehow we did and it quickly turned into a very moving conversation.

 I have always seen and heard this story from the eyes of the Americans. Both of my grandfathers fought it in WWII and throughout my entire life they never spoke one word about it to me, I have only a heard a few stories from my parents. For example, one day my dad was outside with my grandfather as a child and a plane flew by and my Grandaddy had a flashback and said, "Hit the ground!" The affect the war had on my grandparents and the scars it left lasted their entire lifetime.

Today, for the first time in my life I learned about what it was like from the point of view of a German living in Nazi Germany. My host mom told me that her mother lost her father at the age of 2 because he was killed in the Ukraine during battle. She then went on to tell me that her father did not know his own father until he was 12 years old because he was kept as a prisoner in Britain. When her grandfather was set free, her father only knew him as a stranger. The war had caused a divide within her grandfather’s family and the families of many other Germans. Her grandfather had 3 brothers, one of whom was a Nazi. She went on to tell me how difficult it was for the non-Nazi Germans because they did not have a choice—They either had to fight, or they would be killed. One of her grandfather’s brothers actually committed suicide because of how badly he did not want to fight in the war. Since all the men were away fighting, it became a women’s world in Germany. The farm where my host mom’s mother grew up was taken over by the women of the family, and they had prisoners help them in the fields. My host mom ended by saying that WWII is the reason she thinks that Germany now takes a different approach to war, and why they are so open to refugees. One of the last things she said to me was, "you should see the eyes of my father when he talks about the day the Americans came to his village. He was so happy because he knew he was free and the war was over." My host mom then began to cry, and I couldn’t help but cry myself.

It is obvious what a lasting impact this war made on the Germans of today, and it will continue to make an impact for generations to come. It is so easy for us to become narrow minded when viewing other cultures. Sometimes when thinking about war, we forget that there are people on the other side who are just like us. Father’s who have to leave their wife and kids behind, mother’s left to take care of the house while they are gone, and children who cannot even fully comprehend what is going on.  And I found it interesting that both my grandfathers and my host mom’s grandfather rarely spoke of what it was like on the battlefield. Once you take the time to try and place yourself in the shoes of someone else, you will fully start to understand who they are and what defines them. That is what I learned today, and I gained an immense amount of respect for my host mom and the rest of the German people.